Toyota to restart all Japan plants from 18 April

TOKYO (Reuters): Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday it would resume assembly at all of its factories in Japan between April 18 and 27 at a rate of about 50 per cent of initial plans.

It also said Toyota’s factories will be closed, as planned, between 28 April and 9 May for Japan’s “Golden Week” holidays and it will monitor the flow of parts supply to decide on production plans for May 10 onwards.

The world’s biggest automaker halted assembly at all 18 group-wide domestic factories that make Toyota and Lexus cars after a massive 11 March quake , with supply of about 500 components disrupted until last week. It restarted limited production of three hybrid models at two plants on 28 March.

The number of parts affected has fallen to about 150, and Toyota will use available inventory to make up for the shortfall, a spokeswoman said.

She added that the company was still looking into whether there has been any additional impact or damage from a big aftershock that shook the northeast region late on Thursday.

Subsidiary Central Motor is scheduled to start limited production of two models at its old factory south of Tokyo next week. Toyota has lost potential production of about 260,000 units in the 20 days through Friday.